British Woman: Priest Fathered My Baby

OTHER NEWS TO NOTE - The World

September 1, 1992

LONDON — In another sex scandal involving the Roman Catholic Church, a woman alleged Monday that a priest was the father of her baby daughter. Religious education teacher Monika Kocanek told British newspapers her lover was a 38-year-old priest and that he had urged her to have an abortion. When she refused and gave birth, the priest broke off contact and the newspapers said he was being sheltered by his religious order, the Community of Sacred Hearts based in Dublin, Ireland. Kocanek, 27, said she was seeking maintenance payments from the father and had written both to the superior of the Community of Sacred Hearts in Rome and to Irish Primate Cardinal Cahal Daly. Neither replied, she said. In June, Irish Bishop Eamonn Casey resigned after admitting he was the father of a 17-year-old boy.